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April 12, 2008
Rock Chalk Jawhawk Money, Woo!
I think I picked a good year to have a money-winning NCAA tournament bracket, considering the meteo grad pool that Moyer ran was $10/entry. I was in decent shape coming into the Final Four, with three of the four safely in (I had Texas beating Memphis, oops). Memphis didn't do me any favors by beating UCLA, but Kansas beating North Carolina is what really put me in a position to get into the top 3. The Jayhawks had me on a bit of a yo-yo emotionally in that game though: I was ecstatic as they jumped out to a stunning 40-12 lead early, then I was really nervous as the Tar Heels shrunk the lead down to 59-55, before Kansas finally woke up again and put the game away, much to my enjoyment.
The National Championship game was a dandy as well, between Kansas and Memphis. What was on the line? If Memphis won, Jacob, Kerrie & Walter would finish 1-2-3. If Kansas won, Maggie would finish 1st, and then Nat, Chad & I would all tie for 2nd, with the game's final score used as a tiebreaker (I had 77-71, Nat had 77-72, Chad had 61-58, though we all had UCLA and not Memphis in the title game). So when Kansas came back from 9 points down with just over 2 minutes remaining, tying the game at 63-63 on a miracle three-pointer by Mario Chalmers with 2.2 seconds left to force overtime, I was doubly excited, because it meant 1) that the Jayhawks still had a chance to win, and 2) that the final score would get high enough (but hopefully not too high) for me to win the tiebreaker. And with the final score being Kansas 75-68 Memphis, I moved into 2nd place, good for $60! Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!
So what am I gonna do with all this cash? I think it's only appropriate for me to put winnings from college basketball toward other college basketball-related entertainment. Hmm, how about putting it toward a plane ticket to Spokane next winter so I can go to a Gonzaga game with my cousin Jonathan? I think that sounds like an awesome plan!
Oh, and the Penn State Weather Prediction Markets just closed up for the academic year, and I earned a pretty nice chunk of change (almost $120) for just over a semester's worth of work -- especially considering it took no initial investment of my own. It's cool when you can make money doing something you already enjoy doing anyway. I'm definitely looking forward to doing it for a full year next school year!
Spring has definitely arrived here in State College. It was gorgeous almost all week, with both Thursday and today being absolutely beautiful, in the 60s and sunny. I did take a break from all my work of editing my paper to play some tennis with Ben & Kerrie on Thursday, and even though I once again got smoked 6-0, 6-0 in two sets vs Ben, it was the best that I've played and served, so I was pleased. In addition to some warm weather, you can tell spring's here, because some daffodils started blooming around town this week, and many trees are starting to get buds. And next week's looking pretty nice too, though we might we some snowflakes and sleet tomorrow. But hey, at least we won't get as much snow as Minnesota's gotten from two storms in the last couple weeks, haha. That's one thing I don't really miss from the Midwest, big snowstorms in April.
The Penn State football team suffered a major, major blow yesterday, when star linebacker Sean Lee, the next great linebacker at Linebacker U, tore his ACL in practice. He's done for the year now, which totally sucks. He'll be able to get a redshirt and come back in 2009, but that's just an absolutely crushing blow for this year's team. One can only hope that the young guys behind him can step up and play well. After all the other aggravating off-the-field issues and suspensions that the Nittany Lions have had (not to mention the perpetually unresolved Joe Paterno contract fiasco), this was the last thing we needed. In any case, there's only one week to go until the Blue-White Game, so that can only mean it's time for videos like these to start coming out!
Posted by Jared at April 12, 2008 11:58 PM